Professors and Reading and Due Dates, Oh My!

Monday was my first real day of classes and things are going wonderfully! I love my professors, who are educated at The University of Genoa, Harvard, Cambridge, The University of London, The University of Rome, Oxford, and so on. They really know their material and have a special passion for what they teach here that I find to be really energizing.
My first class is Passing in Literature in Film which is about people who have stigmatisms (social, mostly) and how they "pass" under concealment for something which they arent. We have spoken about the black author, Anatole Broyard, who was light skinned and made the world believe he was white, but the course will study a wide variety of topics. That one is taught by a guest professor from Connecticut College and the class is mostly juniors. My second class is Early Italian Renaissance Art which is taught by a quirky lady with a dry humor that makes me laugh sometimes. While I think I will really learn a lot in that class, Im prepared for lots of extra personal excursions to various sites in Rome and also to Florence. When my dad was in Rome, we even went to some of the places that Im now reading about, and its so cool to think that I am right here where it all happened so long ago. I knew that taking an art history class in Rome would be rewarding, because where else can you study, on-site, the things you are reading about in your text book?! My third class is Roman Influences on English Literature, taught by my advisor. He has a charming British accent and when he speaks, everyone listens with rapt attention. He reminded us that the campus buildings are owned by an ancient Scientific Academy down the road which has been here for so long - long enough that every great mind who has entered Rome walked along the very road where I walk everyday. I saw him after class later in the day and he looked at me and said, "there is Milton. Do you see him?" and he looked down the road ahead of us. He is inspiring in that he has passion in equal measure for the promise of new discovery in literature and also for antiquity and great authors of the past. The class is also one of a few that I can only take here in Rome and that will really be beneficial and unique for my major. My fourth class is The Genre of Fiction, which I originally thought would be an easy course because of its broad title but it is taught by a British woman from Oxford who is determined to really make everything we do count. Im excited because she has said that for our first essay she will grade us very harshly and that as time goes on she will look for improvement and help us to become better writers. I know that it will be a huge help to have a teacher who is going to push me to a limit in writing. Also, I absolutely love fiction and could read novels all day long, which is what this course explores. There will be a good deal of theory and that will be a completely unexplored field for me. Finally, I have Intermediate Italian 1 (third level Italian). I was so nervous walking in and before the class started, I noticed that everyone around me looked equally as unsure, so we talked about how we felt about the class and many of us had a bond before we even began. It made me feel like I could make mistakes and that would be alright. I love the professor, who is Italian (like all of the other Italian language professors) but she may have to change to a different day and a new professor may take her place. In any case, the course is taught entirely in Italian, and English is prohibited, which made me nervous at first but now excites me for the possibility that I could learn so much in a very short period of time. The first part of the class will be review, also, and after that I feel like I will be ready to go.
My roommates and I are really getting along and studying hard. I have tons of reading and these courses are pushing me harder than I have been pushed in a long time. I love school so thats exciting to me and the challenge is welcomed. Ill have to really stay on top of things but I know I can do it and Im happy that there are such high expectations here from the professors, and also from my fellow students.